[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 53 (Thursday, March 24, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E297-E298]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               TRIBUTE TO ELIAS PARONG SABLAN (1899-1968)

                                 ______
                                 

                  HON. GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN

                    of the northern mariana islands

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 24, 2022

  Mr. SABLAN. Madam Speaker, Elias Jacobo Parong Sablan was a 
visionary, linguist, and pioneering leader of the people of Saipan, 
guiding them out from under the 400-year rule of foreign powers to the 
beginnings of our self-government under the trusteeship of the United 
States after World War II.
  Born on November 8, 1899, to Felix Delos Reyes Sablan and Luisa Malug 
Parong, Elias was the fourth child in a family of six. He learned our 
native languages at home: Chamorro from his father Felix and Carolinian 
from his mother Luisa.
  Felix also taught his son to speak, read, and write the English 
language. In his own youth, Felix served as a cabin boy aboard the 
Charles W. Morgan, an American whaling ship out of New Bedford, 
Massachusetts. From his crewmates he learned English and about life in 
the United States of America. He also collected English textbooks on 
navigation, United States history, and other subjects, books he shared 
with his son Elias as the boy grew.
  The year before Elias' birth, Germany purchased the Northern Mariana 
Islands from Spain, which had ruled the islands for some 377 years. 
Elias attended the German school on Saipan, and then was sent to the 
island of Yap, also under German control, to be educated in 
communications. By the time he was 15, Elias had learned the 
international Morse code and added Yapese and German to his linguistic 
skills.
  Japan seized control of the Northern Mariana Islands from Germany at 
the outset of World War I and after the war was granted a mandate to 
govern by the League of Nations. This occupation provided Elias the 
opportunity to learn one more language, Japanese, while working at the 
Japanese sugar mill. He also married during this Japanese period, 
wedding Carmen Romolor Mangarero on January 23, 1921. Together they 
would have 13 children.
  Elias' heritage, his upbringing, his education, and experience all 
prepared him well for the life-threatening events of World War II and 
what came after. In fact, Elias' knowledge of English would save his 
life and the lives of his family.
  World War II came to the Mariana Islands on June 10, 1944, when the 
United States attacked the Japanese military forces on Saipan. After a 
brutal and destructive battle, killing tens of thousands of Japanese 
and American soldiers, as well as non-combatant civilians, the United 
States took control of the island on July 9, 1944.
  Throughout the battle, Elias and his family hid in a cave in the 
hills, listening as bombs dropped on the island and watching as 
Japanese and American airplanes fought in the skies overhead. One day, 
spotting movement near the cave's entrance, U.S. battleships just 
outside the island's reef aimed their fire at the family's hiding 
place.
  When the shelling subsided, those sheltered in the cave could hear 
voices outside speaking a foreign language. It was U.S. Marines talking 
in English and combing the area for

[[Page E298]]

Japanese. Suddenly, a baby started crying within the cave and the 
entrance was discovered. The Marines yelled into the cave, and Elias 
immediately came out with his hands up and said in English, I 
surrender. If he had not responded as he did, the Marines were ready to 
toss grenades into the cave rather than risk Japanese soldiers were 
hiding there.
  Because he spoke English, the Marines asked if he was Elias Sablan. 
They had been on the look-out for him because they were told Elias was 
one of only two Chamorros who knew English and could help translate for 
the U.S. military forces. Everyone in the cave was escorted down the 
hill to the camp where other survivors had been gathered and were being 
fed, clothed, and treated for injuries.
  When the battles in the Marianas had ended, the American Military 
Government wanted to put the islanders on the road to independence and 
self-government. In December 1944, they held the first election for a 
Head Chief, the forerunner of today's Mayor. Barely five months into 
office, however, that first elected official passed away.
  The military then appointed Elias to be interim Head Chief, until a 
new election could be held. Elias was working as the leader of the 
police force and continued in that position until being elected in his 
own right at head chief/mayor on July 4, 1945. Women voted in that July 
election, although they had not been able to vote the previous 
December.
  Elias was an excellent representative of his constituents. He 
embodied Saipan's history and culture, because by blood he was both 
Chamorro and Carolinian, the two local communities of the island. He 
spoke those two languages, as well as the languages of all the foreign 
powers that had ruled and were now ruling Saipan: Spanish, German, 
Japanese, and English. Bringing this background and linguistic ability 
to his work as Mayor, Elias could understand and be understood by 
everyone on Saipan.
  In coordination with the U.S. military the new Mayor went about the 
business of bringing life on the island back to normalcy. He appointed 
a building supervisor, a sanitation commissioner, an Educational 
Officer, and a replacement Police Chief. The infrastructure for the new 
island government was now started.
  Every person living in the camps set up after the battle of Saipan 
was identified and accounted for. Repairs were made to the classrooms 
of the Chalan Kanoa school, so children could have a place to study. 
And working with the U.S. military, Elias helped interested families 
return to work farming.
  In 1947, the United Nations created the Trust Territory of the 
Pacific Islands. The United States was charged with governing the TTPI 
and with helping its people transition from being colonies to being 
sovereign nations. As Mayor, Elias worked with the TTPI administration. 
He even traveled to New York City in 1955, along with delegates from 
the other Micronesian islands in the Trust Territory to report on the 
status of that transition.
  Elias wanted to model self-government in the islands after American 
democracy, which he had read about in the textbooks his father gave 
him. There had been no political parties, when he was first elected, 
and no specific candidates. Each voter simply wrote in the name of his 
or her choice on a printed ballot. So, to foster competitive elections 
after the American practice, Elias, together with other community 
leaders, started the islands' first political party: the Territorial 
Party.
  Elias served for three consecutive terms (twelve years) as the Mayor 
of Saipan, from 1945 through 1956. Even after stepping down as Mayor, 
though, he continued serving the people in various other government and 
civic positions until his death on October 29, 1968.
  Sadly, his passing came too soon for him to witness the realization 
of his vision of a happy and prosperous life for his people as members 
of the American political family. Saipan and the other Northern Mariana 
Islands became a Commonwealth of the United States in 1978.

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